Archive | crafts & DIY

Today I am sharing a pretty and simple packaging idea to make for Valentine’s Day. With a few basic supplies, some sweet treats of your choice {macarons}, and a little bit of time to assemble, these gifts will be ready to give. For something as simple as these mini packages, a little care and attention to detail was important to make them special. To dress up the basic glassine bags, pink ribbon was used to give the bags a nice pop of color. The handmade heart tags were added for a personal touch. A wonderful way to share with others the yummy treats enclosed inside the gift package.

I hope these ideas will be fun to put together for Valentine’s Day or for other occasions.

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As an alternative to chocolate or candy for Valentine’s Day, each one of the treat bags will be filled with a French macaron.

To get started, fill each glassine bag with a macaron and tie it with a ribbon. Repeat the process until all are the treats are packaged up.

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To make heart tags:
Choose a decorative paper and cut it into smaller rectangular pieces, approximately 3½-4 inches by 2-2½ inches. Fold one of the small pieces of paper in half and cut out with scissor a heart shape to make two paper hearts {see above pic}. If you are not comfortable cutting freeform hearts with a pair of scissors, you can lightly trace out a heart shape on the paper first then cut them out. Glue the back sides of the two hearts together to give strength and weight to the tag. Repeat the steps with the other pieces of paper.

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After cutting and gluing the two hearts together, punch a hole near the top center of the heart shape paper.

To attach twine to the hart shaped paper:
Cut a piece of twine about 10-12 inches long, fold it in half and insert the folded end through the punched hole, pull about an inch or two out, and loosen it apart to make an opening. Take the two loose ends of twine and pull them through the opening to tighten and attach it to the paper.

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Attach a tag to a bag by tying or taping it. Personalize it with a written note or a person’s name.

Transform ordinary cookies, doughnuts, and cupcakes into something spooky and slightly creepy for Halloween. Whether they are homemade or store bought treats, with the addition of little googly eyes will instantly turn them into little monsters and creatures that the kids will have fun eating. A little dab of royal icing onto the back of each one of these eyes will hold it in place. These adorable candy eyes can be homemade with royal icing or purchased at the grocery stores or specialty stores. The royal icing recipe is available at the end of the blog post.

A gift for a fly fisherman Dad that doesn’t have to end after Father’s Day. Once a month a package from Postfly will be delivered to the mailbox with essential flies or fly tying kit to get him ready to go out and spend time fishing. Postfly started their business in 2013 by putting together fly fishing kits of high quality to make it convenient and to help their customers be successful fishermen out on the water.

The Postfly has a variety of flies to fit your needs for Trout, Bass, Saltwater, and Steelhead. Subscription offers are available from 1 month, 3-months, 6-months, or 1 year. After selecting the choices given, once a month you will receive in the mail a box of approximately six to twelve flies to use during the season. Their most popular is the Trout Flybox.

Instead of getting a set of flies once a month, Bill decided to go with the fresh water fly tying kit. He wanted to improve his fly tying skills and the box set will have all the supplies needed without having to go out and buy it in bulk. Here are some of the latest packages of supplies that Bill received.

Some months ago I came upon a book in the library titled,”The Sketchbook Project.” It was filled with the sketch work from people all over the world. Some were professional artists and some amateurs. Interviews with several of the contributors revealed many were like me having been more devoted to practicing art at an earlier time in their life. Participating in the project gave them an opportunity to simply sketch again and perhaps reignite their artistic side. I decided to take a chance and make a commitment to produce my own sketchbook to be included in the Brooklyn Art Library located in Brooklyn, NY.

The theme/challenge I signed up for at the time was “Memoirs.” It took some time to consider what of my memories would be included in my sketches. I found I had to work in a separate sketchbook for a few weeks to let ideas through my mind. Eventually I found most of my work focusing more on the places I have lived that had the greatest impact and some other important locations and events related to living.

When an idea for a project turns out better than expected, it is quite exciting for me! The transformation of basic flour sack towels into “designer towels” with the use of fabric markers was a fun project. Simple hand-drawn leaf and stripe designs were used and it took about 5 to 10 minutes to finish each one. In this blog post, I will be sharing with you the instructions and the steps to make these pretty towels. I also included illustrations of different types of leaves you might want to include in your designs.

The finished flour sack towels are lovely for displaying when not in use. They also make great gifts to share with others.